🛕 Bayon

The Bayon is arguably the most visually striking and mysterious temple in the Angkor complex. Built around the turn of the 13th century as the state temple of Jayavarman VII, Cambodia's great Buddhist king, it sits at the exact centre of his walled capital, Angkor Thom. It was the last of the great state temples built at Angkor and the only one conceived primarily as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine.

The temple's defining feature is its forest of massive stone faces — more than 200 of them, gazing serenely from some 49 towers (plus the central mass). Their calm, faintly smiling expression is usually interpreted as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the embodiment of compassion, though many scholars see the features of Jayavarman VII himself, blurring the line between king and deity.

The outer gallery holds roughly 1.2 kilometres of bas-reliefs that are unusually devoted to ordinary life and history rather than pure mythology: bustling markets, cockfights, fishing, cooking and childbirth, alongside vivid land and naval battles against the Cham — including scenes of the great fight on the Tonlé Sap. This rare documentary record of 12th-century Khmer society makes the Bayon invaluable to historians. Later Hindu and Buddhist rulers altered and re-consecrated parts of the temple, adding to its layered, labyrinthine feel.

The compact, three-dimensional layout and narrow corridors create an almost dreamlike atmosphere. Mid-morning light, when the sun rakes across the towers, is the best time to photograph the faces; the Bayon pairs naturally with the nearby Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants and the rest of Angkor Thom.